mosaic

pronunciation

How to pronounce mosaic in British English: UK [məʊˈzeɪɪk] word uk audio image

How to pronounce mosaic in American English: US [moʊˈzeɪɪk] word us audio image

Noun:

art consisting of a design made of small pieces of colored stone or glass
viral disease in solanaceous plants (tomatoes, potatoes, tobacco) resulting in mottling and often shriveling of the leaves
a pattern resembling a mosaic
transducer formed by the light-sensitive surface on a television camera tube
assembly of aerial photographs forming a composite picture
Adjective:

decorated with small pieces of colored glass or stone fitted together

Word Origin

mosaic: mosaic: [16] Mosaic work is etymologically work ‘of the muses’. The word comes ultimately from Greek mouseion, which originally meant literally ‘place of the muses’, and has also given English museum. Somehow in medieval Latin it became altered to mūsaicus or mōsaicus, and passed via early modern Italian mosaico and French mosaïque into English as mosaic. It has no etymological connection, incidentally, with Mosaic ‘of Moses’ [17].=> muse, museum

mosaic (n.): c. 1400, from Old French mosaicq "mosaic work," from Italian mosaico, from Medieval Latin musaicum "mosaic work, work of the Muses," noun use of neuter of musaicus "of the Muses," from Latin Musa (see muse). Medieval mosaics were often dedicated to the Muses. The word formed in Medieval Latin as though from Greek, but the (late) Greek word for "mosaic work" was mouseion (Klein says this sense was borrowed from Latin). Figurative use is from 1640s. As an adjective in English from 1580s. Related: Mosaicist.

Mosaic (adj.): "pertaining to Moses," 1660s (earlier Mosaical, 1560s), from Modern Latin Mosaicus, from Moses.

1. This optical mosaic combines 300 high-resolution images taken on a 2010 expedition .

4. It is thought that the mosaic was made by north african artists because some of the tesserae ( pieces for the mosaic ) are african .